Hi, guys (& girls as applicable). My name is Bob and I am just starting on this board. I recently retired from the service where I worked in AC&R. I now work for a food service equipment service company as a tech. Ironically, when I first joined the Navy while I was in EN "A" school, we were all asked by the instructor what we wanted for experience out of the Navy. Eferyone, except me, said they wanted to become proficient in AC&R. I said that I wanted Heavy Diesel. Out of the 30 guys in my A school class, 14 went to main prop divisions, yet, I ended up in the AC&R shop on my first ship. I work on refrigeration, coolers, ice machines etc, and I really do enjoy it. Prior to retiring, I worked mostly with R-12(& lots of it), R-114, R-22 & R-134, while now I work with many others and no R-12. From this board I'm hoping to see what others are seeing in commercial (civilian) repair, new ideas, trouble shooting ideas and the latest in refrigeration service. Basically, I am thinking that by reading up on this board, I will see some of the problems and corrections to those problems, before I see them in the equipments I work on. I realize that I won't always see tomorrow's problems and answers on the board, before I face them at work, yet, I hope to get a good idea how others are doing things. Many practices that we have had simply don't work out here. You might notice that none of the Refrigerants that I listed as the ones I worked with are blended, and even after all these years, I am just now getting accustomed to charging everything as a liquid, vice a gas, for example, and the company that I work for doesn't replace start relays when they fail. We simply use the Hard Start, which I've only used for troubleshooting. Sorry to babble, but I am hoping to get as current and up to date as possible. Thanks for welcoming me.

To be honest, Duke, I am just beginning to use the Hard Start as a repair part. I've been using them to confirm the compressor is bad, prior to ordering a new one. I'll admit that I felt a bit weird leaving one in early last week, after the cooler ran. It is the company policy to replace the start relay, the thermal switch and the start capacitor, so it really isn't up to me, anymore than limiting my use of Hard Starts to trouble shooting was in the service. If I am understanding you correctly, using this as a repair part is not an industry standard?

You gotta check the caps then if the unit still doesn't start install the hard start kit. I too was in the navy, the sent some other dude to the hvac r shop while i was left lapping vlvs in the valve shop. Lots of fun. Anyways when i got out I went straight to work at Hussmann refrigeration building cases, that was good training for me. Now i own my own company with the wife it is hard work though but I love it.

Hi Bobby, don't mean to rain on your parade but I didn't see a New Member section and the name of your Topic is perfect for new members and I did not want to start another topic with the same subject.

Hi,My name is Wendell and I've been in the commercial and residential HVAC industry as a service technician for over 10 years. I've joined this forum looking for solutions and ideas to the problems that stump me from time to time; and also to assist other technicians with their troubles if I can. Carry on.